From the Editor- April 2010

A Look Through Someone Else’s Glasses
Over the past few months I have been reading a number of books on the value of diversity.Not the visual diversity that is often discussed by corporate and political leaders but the diversity of thought. Thought diversity provides for more effective leadership as well as increased innovation. It allows us to look outside of our own limits and provides us with a much broader perspective providing the benefits gained from the knowledge and experiences of others. The problems that we are asked to solve today often require the bridging between disciplines and thought diversity provides us with the potential exposure to those alternative solutions that our own tunneled vision would not permit us to see.So why bring this topic up for discussion now? Just this past week, I attended a conference and there were a few papers that I listened to dealing with petrophysics and geophysics. Not what I consider my areas of expertise but they were part of the program. Each of these papers had a long list of co-authors. To the best of my knowledge all of the co-authors had similar technical backgrounds. The papers were technically solid and offered some incremental advancement in exploration and production workflows. During the presentations I found myself jotting down some notes. There is nothing unusual in my note taking except that these notes were not directly capturing the thoughts of the presenters but rather how I might intertwine their work with mine. When the speakers’ presentations were done I shared some of these ideas and how I felt we could jointly benefit by collaboration. An e-mail and a hallway discussion have since followed. I am not yet clear how far this new collaboration might go or whether a step change in our understanding or workflow process will occur but it is an opportunity. Both sides were open to the idea that we could benefit from the knowledge and experiences of the other and aware of the potential that the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts.
 
This month many of us will be attending the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention in New Orleans. This will be a great opportunity for learning, the capturing of diversity of thought among those active in our industry and science, as well as for networking. In the past I have found myself sitting through sessions and listening to papers in areas technically similar to those that I work in. Clearly, there are benefits to this type of activity. It keeps me current in my field and provides an opportunity for me to maintain my established network.
I must admit that very often I am disappointed because what has been presented provides for only incremental advancement in my understanding in my area of expertise. This year I am going to try something different and hope that I will add significantly to my knowledge base. I am going to sit through a few sessions outside of my area of expertise and seek out a few presenters to discuss their work and its implications. I would like to challenge each of you to do the same. Attend at least one complete session outside of your technical specialty or geographic area of responsibility and after the session ends find at least one of the speakers and discuss his or her work. This should provide some diversity of thought as to how you examine your own work problems and should also broaden your professional network. You might find an unexpected technology link or a better analogue. I know that I am hoping to do so. This broadening should also help us to continue to prepare for the continuing changes in our industry by allowing us to broaden our potential opportunities. How many among us, ten years ago, would have thought that shales and mudstones would be considered a reservoir of ever growing importance?
 
As important as the information conveyed in the oral and poster presentations is, the expansion of the professional network may be even more important. Even with all of the social networking sites that exist, I am surprised at how narrowly focused all of our networks tend to be. We all tend to build networks, independent of their size, of people similar to ourselves, sharing common beliefs and similar skills. Although these networks are valuable they do not necessarily provide for the diversity of thought that allows for the innovation through the merging of different technologies. Remember that many of the greatest innovations have resulted from the touch points where independent technologies were brought together. Just consider developments in such fields as basin modeling, seismic data acquisition and processing, and well logging all of which are technologies that cross boundaries.
 
Before I close, I must note that two of our members Fred Walsh and Bill Bishop contacted me about a spelling error on the cover of our February Bulletin. There were several other minor errors present in that issue. (No need to contact me about them. Some of these errors are obvious and some not so. There are no prizes.) Although not an excuse, the February issue is prepared on a very short schedule between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, as Editor I take full responsibility and will do my best in the remaining 12 issues under my tenure to prevent such errors from reoccurring. I will also put in-place a plan to handle those rushed months where there is limited time to prepare and review the draft Bulletin before it goes to the printer. For those concerned we have corrected the cover, table of contents, and article in the Bulletin posted on the HGS website.
Until next time…